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PGDip Advanced Clinical Practice

Prepare for the role of Advanced Clinical Practitioner in primary or secondary care

Year of entry: 2024 (September)

Length

2 years part-time

Start date

September 2024 (semester dates)

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This course will enable you to develop competency in advanced clinical practice while working in your existing healthcare setting.

Through the integration of research and theory with practice, you’ll build your knowledge and skills so you can safely assess, diagnose and treat or refer patients presenting with undifferentiated problems. This will include the prescription or administration of medication according to the rules governing your particular profession.

You'll gain professional skills including risk management, resilience and leadership in order to progress your journey towards advanced practice.

On graduation, you’ll be a critically reflective practitioner, able to make informed judgements based on sound analysis, often within unpredictable circumstances. You will be ready to take your place in a range of healthcare settings.

This course has been designed to enable you to achieve the capabilities in the NHS (2017) Advanced Clinical Practice Multi-professional framework.

This postgraduate diploma level course is similar in content to the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice. However, on the PGDip course you will not undertake Year 3, which includes the service improvement project (dissertation).

If you would like to apply for the Advanced Clinical Practitioner apprenticeship programme, please contact your employer in the first instance, as there is a separate application that will need to be completed.

Accreditation

Successful completion of the Independent and Supplementary Prescribing module will enable you to legally prescribe medicines and appliances.

Expert speakers

Expert speakers are a great feature of the course. We use them to bring in specialist knowledge to enhance your knowledge base and understanding.

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Course content

You'll need to be able to work with a clinical supervisor (a qualified Advanced Clinical Practitioner, GP or doctor of registrar level or above) in the area of practice where you are currently employed throughout the course.

You will spend a full day each week with your clinical supervisor to work on skills and competencies learned in class and to develop your competency in your own area of practice.

Modules

Year 1

You will study the evidence underpinning advanced clinical practice, the biological basis of illness and how pathology relates to signs and symptoms in the individual. You will learn how to assess these signs and symptoms through history taking, and physical and mental health assessment, and how to formulate this information into clinical diagnoses and a plan of care.

Core modules

You will take core modules, which may include:

Year 2

You will explore professional issues faced by Advanced Clinical Practitioners and look at how to manage risk and gain resilience. You will also examine the broad context of health, including public health, and how the Advanced Clinical Practitioner can influence outcomes in the healthcare context. You can also qualify as a non-medical prescriber (if you are not already one).

Core modules

You will take core modules, which may include:

Option modules

You will take a selection of option modules, examples of which may include:

Option A (if you are eligible for non-medical prescribing)

Option B (if you are not eligible for non-medical prescribing)

Our modules may change to reflect the latest academic thinking and expertise of our staff.

The York approach

Every course at York is built on a distinctive set of learning outcomes. These will give you a clear understanding of what you will be able to accomplish at the end of the course and help you explain what you can offer employers. Our academics identify the knowledge, skills, and experiences you'll need upon graduation and then design the course to get you there.

Students who complete this course will be able to:

  • Use their expertise and decision making skills to inform clinical reasoning approaches when dealing with differentiated and undifferentiated individuals' presentations and complex situations, synthesising information from multiple sources to make evidence-based judgements or diagnoses to provide person-centred care.
  • Practise with a high level of autonomy and be accountable for decisions and omissions, adhering to codes of conduct, professional standards and scope of practice, and demonstrating application of relevant, subject-specific competencies, knowledge and behaviours to enhance the care and experience of individuals.
  • Exercise professional judgement to assess and manage risk, facilitating individuals to make informed choices, initiating, evaluating and modifying a range of interventions, and working with multi-agency and interprofessional resources to empower individuals to participate in decisions about their care.
  • Work collaboratively to evaluate own and others' practice, acting as a role model and mentor, engaging in and developing strategies to act on learning, advocating for and contributing to the development of a culture that supports lifelong learning and development.
  • Demonstrate self and team leadership in managing situations that are unfamiliar, complex or unpredictable, being resilient, receptive to challenges and prepared to constructively challenge others and to initiate and manage change.
  • Engage in collaborative working to understand and critically consider evidence to underpin and inform clinical practices to enhance quality

Fees and funding

Annual tuition fees for 2024/25

Study modeUK (home)International and EU
Part-time (2 years)
This is the year 1 fee. Fees for future years are subject to confirmation. This is course is currently not available to overseas applicants who need a UKVI Student visa to study in the UK.
£3,975£8,970

Students on a Student Visa are not currently permitted to study part-time at York.

For courses which are longer than one year, the tuition fees quoted are for the first year of study.

  • UK (home) fees may increase in subsequent years (up to a maximum of 2%).
  • International fees may increase in subsequent years in line with the prevailing Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate (up to a maximum of 10%).

Fees information

UK (home) or international fees? The level of fee that you will be asked to pay depends on whether you're classed as a UK (home) or international student. Check your fee status.

Find out more information about tuition fees and how to pay them.

Additional costs

There are no specific additional fees for this course. You may choose to buy your own textbooks, which will cost around £150, however, these will also be available from the library. You may also want to print out some documents. We would anticipate the cost of printing would be up to £30.

Funding information

Discover your funding options to help with tuition fees and living costs.

We'll confirm more funding opportunities for students joining us in 2024/25 throughout the year.

If you've successfully completed an undergraduate degree at York you could be eligible for a 10% Masters fee discount.

Funding opportunities

Departmental funding

Living costs

You can use our living costs guide to help plan your budget. It covers additional costs that are not included in your tuition fee such as expenses for accommodation and study materials.

Teaching and assessment

You’ll work with world‐leading academics who’ll challenge you to think independently and excel in all that you do. Our approach to teaching will provide you with the knowledge, opportunities and support you need to grow and succeed in a global workplace.

Teaching format

In Year 1, teaching will be on a Tuesday. This will change to a Thursday in the second year. You'll have significant face-to-face time with lecturers.

You'll learn through theory sessions followed by discussions and a review of practice. During the patient assessment module, the afternoon session will consist mainly of clinical practice in the skills lab, working on the techniques of history taking and physical assessment.

Patient scenarios and case studies will be available through the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for you to continue learning outside the classroom.

During the course, you will develop an electronic portfolio which will allow you to document your hours and meetings with your clinical supervisor, and provide you with a space to add evidence which supports your increasing competency.

Facilities

You will benefit from our state-of-the-art Clinical Simulation Unit which replicates a number of areas of healthcare in which you may work.

Teaching location

You'll be based in the Department of Health Sciences, which is on Campus West. The majority of your teaching will take place in Alcuin, or at other locations across Campus West. 

Students will work in their own area of clinical practice throughout the programme. Students may choose to organise placements in other healthcare settings in order to enhance their clinical learning.

About our campus

Our beautiful green campus offers a student-friendly setting in which to live and study, within easy reach of the action in the city centre. It's easy to get around campus - everything is within walking or pedalling distance, or you can always use the fast and frequent bus service.

Assessment and feedback

You will be assessed in both theory and practice with formative assessments to support you in identifying areas for development.

Careers and skills

The demand for qualified Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs) is growing, and on completion of this course you will be able to apply for and work as an ACP.

Career opportunities

  • A range of advanced clinical practice roles
  • Advanced Clinical Practitioner
  • Strategic healthcare leader and manager
  • Cognitive behavioural psychotherapist
  • Infant mental health practitioner
  • Primary care mental health practitioner

 

Transferable skills

Upon successful completion of the course, you will be able to:

  • Manage risk and influence healthcare practices and policy to become a resilient professional
  • Work in collaboration with others to improve the health of the population
  • Lead on service development and implement change

Entry requirements

Typical offer
Undergraduate degree You should hold an undergraduate degree (exception may be given if you have evidence of recent successfully completed modules at level six).
Other international qualifications Equivalent qualifications from your country

Additional requirements

This course is open to healthcare professionals who have current registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Health Care Professions Council, or the General Pharmaceutical Council and have at least two years relevant clinical experience.

You need to be able to attend university one day per week during term time and should have the full support of your workplace management.

You may also be required to pass an interview in order to be offered a place on the course.

You must have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Check and show evidence of Occupational Health clearance.

Apprentices only

Those funded as an apprentice must be employed as an apprentice. English and maths at Level 2 will be required prior to undertaking End Point Assessment (Transition to Advanced Practice module)

Extra requirements for students undertaking the non-medical prescribing module

If you intend to undertake this module you need to be a registered nurse, pharmacist or physiotherapist with three years' post-qualification experience and have been working in the clinical field of intended practice for the last year.

You will need to be able to complete 90 hours learning in practice under the supervision of a designated prescribing practitioner (DPP).

You will need separate and specific support from your employing organisation and you must have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Check which is under three years old at the time of enrolment.

Recognition of prior learning

Please see our recognition of prior learning policies.

English language

If English isn't your first language you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. We accept the following qualifications:

Minimum requirement
IELTS (Academic and Indicator) 6.5, minimum 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in all other components
Cambridge CEFR B2 First: 176, with a minimum of 176 in Writing and no less than 169 in all other components
Oxford ELLT 7, minimum of 7 in writing and no less than 6 in all other components
Duolingo 120, minimum 120 in production and 105 in all other components
LanguageCert SELT B2 with 33/50 in each component
LanguageCert Academic 70 with a minimum of 70 in Writing and no less than 65 in all other components
KITE 459-494, with 459-494 in writing and 426-458 in all other components
Skills for English B2: Merit overall, with Merit in writing and Pass with Merit in all other components
PTE Academic 61, minimum 61 in Writing and 55 in all other components
TOEFL 87, minimum 23 in Writing and 21 in all other components
Trinity ISE III Merit in all components

For more information see our postgraduate English language requirements.

If you haven't met our English language requirements

You may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language courses. These courses will provide you with the level of English needed to meet the conditions of your offer.

The length of course you need to take depends on your current English language test scores and how much you need to improve to reach our English language requirements.

After you've accepted your offer to study at York, we'll confirm which pre-sessional course you should apply to via You@York.

Applying

You can apply and send all your documentation online. You don’t need to complete your application all at once: you can start it, save it and finish it later.

If you would like to apply for the Advanced Clinical Practitioner apprenticeship programme, please contact your employer in the first instance, as there is a separate application that will need to be completed.

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